DESERT STAR (Renee Ballard /Harry Bosch mystery) (audiobook) by Michael Connelly

 






Published in November of 2022.
Read by Titus Welliver, Christine Lakin, and Peter Giles.
Duration: 9 hours, 37 minutes.
Unabridged.

Synopsis:

The latest Harry Bosch novel has Bosch returning to work with LAPD as a retired volunteer. Renee Ballard was offered a chance to "write her own ticket" because of her work (and very ugly internal politics) in the last novel.

With the help of a sponsor on the city council, she re-established the cold case unit. It has a shoestring of budget and she is the only full time officer in the unit. Everyone else is a volunteer with different skills - a former prosecutor who helps with search warrants, a former FBI field agent, an expert in making family connections with DNA results, an officer who retired early due to health reasons are part of the team. But, Ballard's biggest catch for the team is her sometime unofficial partner - retired LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch.

Bosch may be old (70+) but he is up on the current technology and trends and he makes a big impact right away with some new ideas to apply to old case files. It's a good thing because that sponsor from the city council wants the unit to solve a cold case from his past...

My review:

One of the things I like best about this series is the fact that Michael Connelly has decided to let Harry Bosch age. Some characters, like James Bond, don't age. That has advantages in a thriller - the character can take a punch, he can run, he can romance the pretty girl.

But, over time it doesn't make sense.

More importantly, to me anyway, when the character doesn't age it is saying that old characters don't have much to offer if they can't run fast and beat up a room full of bad guys. Bosch has got a bum leg, an old Jeep and is a bit of a grump. But, he is full of drive, has no bigger ambitions than solving the next murder case and has lots and lots of spare time. 

The first 80% is a top notch police procedural. Some of the best Connelly has written. The last 20% of the book is good, too, but it is marred by a nonsensical plot point (see spoiler "note" down below) that makes it seem a bit more contrived.

It is clear that Connelly has put Bosch on a timer of sorts and this is one of the last Bosch books. I can respect that - Bosch books have been coming out for the last 30 years and Connelly is 66 years old. He still has time to end the series the way he wants to rather than have it go on in substitute author limbo like has happened to so many other authors like Robert B. Parker and his Spenser and Jesse Stone novels. 

Fans of Harry Bosch should not mourn yet. This book clearly is the first part of a two part series within the series. Bosch and his half brother Mickey Haller have a case to work on.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: DESERT STAR (Renee Ballard /Harry Bosch mystery) (audiobook) by Michael Connelly.

*****Spoiler note*****

Harry heads off literally across the country from L.A. to Key West to confront a suspect without a cell phone. His cell phone is stuck in a car impound lot because his car was part of a crime scene. Throughout the whole book he has been texting, emailing, filming and recording with his phone. He is not a stereotypical old guy who has no idea how to use his phone and doesn't see a use for it. 

Connelly gives an explanation, but I think that the character Harry Bosch would have picked up a burner phone, got hold of Ballard and had her pass the phone number on to others while he was flying to Florida.

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